How to Coach Your First Youth Sports Team

A parent's first coaching experience can be intimidating, even if the kids are all five or six years old. The new coach's concerns include not having coaching background, worrying about the other parents, and any perceived deficiency in knowledge or skill in the sport. Coaching youth sports is an amazingly rewarding activity that is addictive for many who participate. This article explains how to prepare yourself, communicate with parents, organize your practices, and manage games.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Any written manuals or guidelines from your child's sports organization.
• Time to prepare for practices and games

1. Familiarize yourself with the organizations rules, regulations, or guidelines. You should also fully understand the rules of the sport, including any alterations that the organization has for kids at the age level you are coaching. Most organizations have written manuals that explain all rules.

2. Determine the level of competitiveness that is expected by the organization. If it is intended as a non-competitive (i.e. learning) activity, do not take it upon yourself to add a competitive aspect to the game. You will only cause friction with other teams and parents. If it is a competitive league, don't remove all competitive elements, or you will lose your team quickly.

3. Determine the level of instruction that is expected. If the organization aims to focus on instruction, then you will want to create practices that work on one or two specific skills each time. There are many resources available on the Internet for creating practice plans.

4. Find other parents to be assistant coaches. Kids (especially ages 5-12)respond best to parent coaches. Having several assistants makes managing practices and games easier and allows you to have more coaching contact with each player.

5. Meet with the parents at or before the first practice. Communicate your goals for the season, the organization's guidelines on competitiveness, and the expectation that all "fans" be positive. Explain that younger players cannot focus on what a coach is saying if parents are yelling instructions throughout the games.

6. Talk to your team. Tell the kids what the goals are for the season, as well as for each practice. If the kids see that practices have a specific goal, they will understand why you are doing each activity.

7. Focus on one or two main skills at each practice. Make drills and activities increasingly harder to encourage development. Younger players lose interest if they have to spend practice standing in lines waiting for drills. For older players, add "pressure-building" activities which make completion of activities harder so that they are mentally prepared for the speed and sensory input during games.

8. Use scrimmages for roughly half of each practice. Kids learn best by playing the game. Coaches should be on the field coaching all players, and should stop the scrimmage when they can discuss specific things that happen. Be sure to coach both teams during scrimmages, or have a coach for each team.

9. Be fair and consistent. The one type of parent who has real trouble coaching is the one who coaches to give his or her child a better position with the team. Communicate what you expect of the kids, and then treat them all fairly. Make playing time consistent with the goals of the organization (some call for equal playing time and others use hard work in practice as factors in determining playing time).

10. Always keep in mind that youth sports are for fun. No one becomes a professional athlete at the age we are discussing. Make sure that the kids know that a successful season is one where the kids have fun. A good coach can teach the game and foster player improvement, while creating an atmosphere of fun.

Tips & Warnings

• Get any available help from your organization or other coaches in the league. Some experienced coaches can act as mentors and visit your first practice to help you get the ball rolling.
• Leave your stress at home. Youth sports practice is a great time to escape the daily grind. After all, you'll be running around with a bunch of kids. Have fun with it.
• Communicate with everyone involved. Continue to talk with parents and request feedback.
• Your number one goal should be to oversee an experience that the kids want to come back to the next season.
• Don't let your emotions increase the level of competitiveness to a point where it should not be. You can tell your players not to argue with officials, but if they see you doing it, they will learn that it is acceptable.
• Don't allow an overbearing parent to ruin the experience for everyone. These days, it is common to see a parent who is overly serious at youth sports events. If this occurs, talk to the parent, and if that does not work, seek out help from the organization. Many experts believe that most kids who quit sports do so because of the pressure that parents bring to the game.